RUGBY UNION Jones hunting Six Nations greatness PAINT IT BLACK
Watson steaks his claim BE LIKE KIWI BRUISER McCAW’
ANTHONY WATSON will learn his Six Nations fate today after suffering a thigh strain to add to six weeks of eating through a straw.
Watson pulled up lame during last week’s training camp in Portugal and was due to have a scan on his leg yesterday.
It is a double dose of bad luck for the wing who broke his jaw in a Brighton training ground collision with Marland Yarde in October and was on liquid rations as he recovered.
The 22-year-old signalled his return to fitness by wolfing down a steak and grabbing two tries for Bath against Pau last week after missing the autumn Tests.
Chew
But Watson is struggling to make Saturday’s opener against France after this latest injury.
He said: “I could chew after three or four weeks but the doctors told me not to put any stress on the jaw and ideally eat soft food for six weeks.
“The first thing I saw after seeing the consultant for the all-clear was a steak because that was the one thing he said I couldn’t eat no matter what.
“I just needed to eat soft food which wasn’t great.
“I tried popcorn about four days after the op and that didn’t go down to well. I had a lot of yoghurt, which was boring, and blended up a lot of food.” EDDIE JONES wants his England and stars to take a leaf out of the book of the greatest player inn All Black history – and never takeake a backward step.
Perfectionist Jones reckons he hasas only scratched the surface with his Grand Slam champions, who are on an England record-equalling run of 14 straight wins.
The Aussie coach is demanding more – and pushing for better by bringing in vision guru Dr Sherylle Calder, and taking the squad to a five- star resort in Portugal last week.
Jones reckons All Blacks legend Richie McCaw – the only skipper too lift the World Cup twice – is prooff that even the good can always get et better.
Jones said: “Good players evolve ve with time. If you are a great defensive ive player and you can add attacking skillskills you become potentially a great player r like McCaw.
Changing
“When McCaw first played for the Crusaders he was an out- and- out defensive player. Couldn’t carry and couldn’t pass – but he was a great defensive player.
“By the end of his career he could carry, he could pass. That is how the great players evolve.
“I am not saying I am great coach but what I want to make sure of is our team keeps changing.
“If you keep evolving what you do, then teams are going to be going at what you used to d do, not whath you are di doing now. I d don’t see it as, ‘this is the England game, this is how we are going to play’ – that must be evolving all the time.”
Jones, who is yet to lose with England, has his work cut out to maintain the successful streak with trips to Dublin and Cardiff in this tournament. And England will have to do it without injured trio (left to right) Billy and Mako Vunipola plus former skipper Chris Robshaw, who all starred in 2016. Jones insists he has the firepower to c over t he absence, but said: “Billy has been a great lieutenant to Dylan Hartley. He has got a really soft voice – leads from the shadows – but he gives us leadership and other guys will have to pick that up.
“Mako grew enormously in Australia and in the autumn. He went from a 5050 choice with Joe Marler to being one of the best loose-heads in the world.
“We’ll miss them, but Nathan Hughes was outstanding against Australia for his first Test – his last 40 minutes he played like a big No.8.
“And Joe Marler would have been the form loose-head in the Six Nations. They can give us something different.”